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Published by Roxburghe Club, n.p., first edition, 2006, 2006
ISBN 10: 1901902013ISBN 13: 9781901902013
Book First Edition
300 copies of this special edition have been printed, of which 200 are for sale. Cloth, large 8vo, printed in carmine and black, 32 cm, xx, 235 pp, 8 pp of colour plates. The first publication in full of some 250 letters exchanged between Benjamin Disraeli and Mrs , a wealthy widow living in Torquay. The correspondence began after Mrs Brydges Willyams invited Disraeli to become her executor and residuary legatee and continued for 12 years until her death in 1863 - Disraeli then inherited the equivalent of some £2 million at today's values. The original correspondence is now at Waddesdon Manor - Lord Rothschild explains in a foreword how it came into his family's possession and how it was considered too sensitive to publish on Disraeli's death in 1881, containing as it does his uninhibited comments and observations on people and events from 1851-1863, during which time Disraeli was variously Chancellor of the Exchequer, Leader of the House of Commons, and in opposition. The letters are edited and annotated by the historian Andrew Roberts, who contributes an eight-page introduction. Spine gilt a trifle rubbed, otherwise Fine.